| Home | > | List of families | > | Fabaceae subfamily Papilionoideae | > | Tephrosia | > | villosa |
| Synonyms: |
Tephrosia appolinia sensu Klotzsch Tephrosia ehrenbergiana Schweinf. |
| Common names: | |
| Frequency: | |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: |
Annual or short-lived perennial, 30-140 cm high, often woody in the lower parts. Stems densely covered in spreading, appressed or deflexed hairs (brown in this variety). Leaves pinnate with 4-10 pairs of leaflets; leaflets, oblanceolate to almost elliptic, up to c. 4 cm long, more or less densely covered with fine appressed hairs above; densely silvery-greyish appressed hairy beneath. Stipules linear-triangular, 4-11 mm long. Flowers in fairly lax, terminal and leaf-opposed racemes up to 20 cm long; bracts 2-5 mm long, densely pubescent. Calyx densely hairy, teeth longer than the tube, lowermost 4-6 times as long. Petals 12-17 mm long, more or less purple. Pod 30-54 mm long, markedly curved upwards in the apical third, densely hairy. |
| Notes: | See var. daviesii for comparison. |
| Derivation of specific name: | villosa: densely covered in long hairs, villose. ehrenbergiana: after Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (1795-1876), German naturalist, zoologist, comparative anatomist, geologist and microscopist. |
| Habitat: | Sandy soils in grassland, often in disturbed habitats. |
| Altitude range: | 50 - 750 m |
| Flowering time: | |
| Worldwide distribution: | Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia and Limpopo, South Africa. |
| Mozambique distribution: | N,T |
| Growth form(s): | |
| Endemic status: | |
| Red data list status: | |
| Insects associated with this species: | |
| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Brummitt, R.K., Harder, D.K., Lewis, G.P., Lock, J.M., Polhill, R.M. & Verdcourt, B. (2007). Leguminosae Subfamily Papilionoideae Flora Zambesiaca 3(3) Pages 134 - 136. (Includes a picture). Da Silva, M.C., Izidine, S. & Amude, A.B. (2004). A preliminary checklist of the vascular plants of Mozambique. Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 30 Sabonet, Pretoria Page 73. Drummond, R.B. (1972). A list of Rhodesian Legumes. Kirkia 8(2) Page 228. Mapaura, A. & Timberlake, J. (eds) (2004). A checklist of Zimbabwean vascular plants Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 33 Sabonet, Pretoria and Harare Page 52. |
| Home | > | List of families | > | Fabaceae subfamily Papilionoideae | > | Tephrosia | > | villosa |